Clarence Thomas’s Radical Vision of Race

[tru_m.a.c]

Like maybe 5% of this story makes sense

“Where does he say black people should go begging the Labor Department for jobs? He was hell on integrationists. Where does he say you should

sacrifice your institutions to be next to white people?”

This quote is what I mean. Malcolm was a virulent anti-capitalist too. His concept of racial uplift was built off his personal experiences with the material effects of racial inequalities. Malcolm never lost site of the racial struggle AND the class/wealth struggle.

So he admired Angela Davis, the most infamous/bold champions of the liberation struggle, the Black Panthers who were staunch anti capitalist with mixes of communists, socialists, marxists, anarchists, maoists, etc., and he was an anti-war protester who went on to become.......

A capitalist pro-war supreme court justice?

Plus, to make an article that says Thomas and his friends organized themselves into the Black Student Union completely glosses over the founding and principled stances of the Black Student Union. This article cannot be complete without a complete narrative from the founding members. Who were the actual founding members when the org was chartered. Who was the first president? How was membership decided? Who was their advisor? How did Clarence get involved in the group and what were his actual activities?

Secondly there are different strains of black nationalism, not to mention the black radical tradition is as deep as our roots on this earth.

I'm supposed to believe that Thomas was a black nationalist at the height of co-intelpro, yet he decided he wanted to work at a all-white prestigous law firm out of Atlanta? One of the first black Yale graduates didn't want to join a firm that was fighting for the release of black liberation fighters jailed and killed on false pretenses? He didn't want to follow in Thurgood Marshall's shoes and join the NAACP Legal Defense fund?

He hated white people so much, he hated his experience with integration so much that he wanted to *check notes* integrate an all white firm in Atlanta?

Let's be clear hear. In 1970 Angela Davis is arrested and supports herself as her own lawyer. She beats her case in 1972. Clarence Thomas enters Yale Law School in 1971 AFTER she's arrested. Yet he doesn't model his law career after he, but she's his inspiration.

I like Corey Robin. But this story is incredibly half assed. It's an outline of an outline.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[hashmander]

Savannah was also where Thomas claims he had his first experience of race—at the hands not of whites but of blacks. Though Thomas began elementary school in 1954, four months after the Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional, he grew up, by his own report, in an “entirely black environment.” His nickname in the schoolyard and the streets was “ABC”—“America’s Blackest Child.” “If he were any blacker,” his classmates jeered, “he’d be blue.” Color was code for class. The darkness of Thomas’s skin—along with the Gullah-Geechee dialect he retained from Pin Point—was a sign of his lowly status and origin. “Clarence had big lips, nappy hair, and he was almost literally black,” a schoolmate told Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson in their 1994 book “Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas.” “Those folks were at the bottom of the pole. You just didn’t want to hang with those kids.”

so that's his self-hate origin story. black colorism is a vile thing and a result of indoctrinated self-hate in our communities. fukked up that a child can't be comfortable with his complexion around other blacks (and children get it from colorist adults). now "america's blackest children" are seeing black depicted as kids who are mixed because their skin tone is more appealing to those with the power and sadly other blacks.

reminds me of those stories of african immigrants hanging on to their negative treatment at school and carrying it into adulthood when they have power.

in this cracker ass world if we can't treat each other better we're doomed. all we got is us.

 

[ogc163]

 

[ORDER_66]

So he's a hypocrite when it comes to issues of race, I mean you can't be to black and a black conservative at the same time...

 

[ogc163]

Just finished the book, and Robin goes off the rails towards the end. He argues that Thomas has this racial war battle fantasy that influences his thinking. And that heightened racial animosity is necessary to keep specifically poor Black people from avoiding their downside risks. Robin attempts to make this argument more plausible by tying this racial battle argument in with older criticisms of integration. But it is not convincing at all as it requires several logical leaps, and Robin's lack of engagement with the concepts of regulatory capture undermines his analysis.

The most interesting and engaging part of the book is where Robin analyzes Thomas's belief in the positive potential of Black patriarchy. Robin convincingly argues Thomas's upbringing and strong relationship with his grandfather leads him to believe in the potency of a strong male figure in the Black household. Compared to his lack of trust, respect, and disdain for his Black woman family members. This leads to Thomas's belief that the reconstruction of the Black man's status and power within the Black household is crucial to the progress of Black people. Thomas is clearly misogynistic in how he articulates the view of both his woman family members and the general Black woman headed household. It is here where Robin does his best job of marrying the tenets of some Black nationalist figures and Thomas's belief system, persuasively arguing that this impacts Thomas's dislike of liberal policies.

 

[Loose]

Or are we sleep?

The thought of this got me

 

[Black Panther]

Before I read this article, I felt Clarence Thomas was a c00n of the highest degree.

After reading this article, I feel Clarence Thomas is a hypocritical c00n of the highest degree.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Just finished the book, and Robin goes off the rails towards the end. He argues that Thomas has this racial war battle fantasy that influences his thinking. And that heightened racial animosity is necessary to keep specifically poor Black people from avoiding their downside risks. Robin attempts to make this argument more plausible by tying this racial battle argument in with older criticisms of integration. But it is not convincing at all as it requires several logical leaps, and Robin's lack of engagement with the concepts of regulatory capture undermines his analysis.

The most interesting and engaging part of the book is where Robin analyzes Thomas's belief in the positive potential of Black patriarchy. Robin convincingly argues Thomas's upbringing and strong relationship with his grandfather leads him to believe in the potency of a strong male figure in the Black household. Compared to his lack of trust, respect, and disdain for his Black woman family members. This leads to Thomas's belief that the reconstruction of the Black man's status and power within the Black household is crucial to the progress of Black people. Thomas is clearly misogynistic in how he articulates the view of both his woman family members and the general Black woman headed household. It is here where Robin does his best job of marrying the tenets of some Black nationalist figures and Thomas's belief system, persuasively arguing that this impacts Thomas's dislike of liberal policies.

Exactly! You can be a black nationalist and a c00n. But there's no sense in calling one a black nationalist if you're not trying to take power away from white people. He assumes time and time again that Thomas' views are of a Black Nationalist origin without actually parsing through black nationaiist ideology. Like, the muhfukkn Attica prison riots were in 1971 too! How does this not have an influence on a so called black nationalist?

On top of that, I think the only quotes/examples of Thomas' black nationalism are produced by Thomas himself. Leave it to Joe Biden and he'd tell you he was MLK in the flesh. Why would you take Thomas' assertions at face value?

Also I think it's inexcusable that Thomas' Catholic faith is left alone. You wouldn't analyze Malcolm without understanding his belief in Islam. So why would you do the same for Thomas? Why would you do the same for anyone who believes in a higher power? You can get some bat shyt crazy patriarchal and Anglican theories through Catholicism.

 

[Take It In Blood]

Too many words to waste on an uncle Tom.... didn't read

 

[jj23]

No racial separatism when it comes to PAWGing

 

[Jhoon]

So he's a hypocrite when it comes to issues of race, I mean you can't be to black and a black conservative at the same time...

No that’s the point. Clearance is the most militant brother of all time. Think Terminator. Thomas was sent from the future back to the past to eradicate all the brothers of the planet.

 

[Jhoon]

No racial separatism when it comes to PAWGing

Ms. Jenny.

The woman that turned Malcolm X.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

No racial separatism when it comes to PAWGing

Well the argument being made is that Thomas' black nationalism is strictly black masculinity. He never saw strong black woman growing up. His relationship with his black ex wife breaks his concept of all black everything.